Applications
- Monitoring and counting of viable and dead cells
- Cytotoxicity studies
Features
- Simultaneous monitoring of viable and dead cells
- High fluorescence intensity
- Fast and convenient procedure
- Detection and quantification by fluorescence microscopy, flow cytometry and fluorescence-compatible cell counters
- Excitation and emission spectra are compatible with common excitation sources and filter sets
Related products
Live/Dead Cell Staining Kits
Easy monitoring of viable and dead cells
The Live/Dead Cell Staining Kit I contains carboxyfluorosuccinimide ester (CFSE), a green fluorescent probe that labels intracellular proteins of live target cells and 7-aminoactinomycin D (7-AAD), a red fluorescent probe that labels nuclear late apoptotic and necrotic target cells killed in the cytotoxicity assay.
The Live/Dead Cell Staining Kit II utilizes two fluorescent dyes, Calcein-AM and Ethidium homodimer III (EthD-III). Calcein-AM penetrates the cell membrane of living cells. Once inside, the cellular esterases present in living cells hydrolyze it to cell membrane-impermeable, green-fluorescent Calcein (emission maximum at 515 nm). In contrast, EthD-III can only pass through the disrupted membrane areas of dead cells where it intercalates with the DNA of the nucleus, emitting red light at 620 nm. Compared with e.g. Propidium Iodide (PI), EthD-III is more stable and emits brighter fluorescent signals. Since both Calcein and EthD-III can be excited at 490 nm, a simultaneous monitoring of viable and dead cells is possible using a fluorescence microscope. At an excitation of 545 nm, the number of dead cells can be monitored.
The Bacteria Live/Dead Staining Kit enables a two-color fluorescent staining on both live bacteria (green) and dead bacteria (red) using the two nucleic acid dyes DMAO and EthD-III. DMAO is a green-fluorescent dye which stains both live and dead bacteria with intact and damaged cell membranes while the red-fluorescing EthD-III only stains dead bacteria with damaged cell membranes. With an appropriate mixture of both dyes, viable bacteria with intact cell membranes are stained green, whereas bacteria with damaged cell membranes fluoresce red. The kit is applicable to most bacteria types for viability and cytotoxicity studies, and suitable for fluorescence microscopy and flow cytometry.
- Double-staining of viable (green) and dead (red) cells using the PromoKine Live/Dead Cell Staining Kit II.
- Assay mechanism of the PromoKine Live/Dead Cell Staining Kit II (click on image to enlarge)
Live/Dead Fixable Staining Kits 
Easy monitoring of viable and dead cells
The Live/Dead Fixable Staining Kits have been designed for discrimination between live and dead cells by flow cytometry or fluorescence microscopy. Live/dead stains are useful probes to include when analyzing cell surface protein expression by flow cytometry, because they allow intracellular fluorescence signal from dead cells with permeable plasma membranes to be excluded from analysis.
Live/Dead Fixable Stains are cell membrane impermeable amine-reactive dyes. The dyes are able to enter into dead cells that have compromised membrane integrity and covalently label free amines on intracellular proteins. On live cells, the dyes react with surface proteins, but these are much less abundant than intracellular proteins, resulting in low staining levels compared to dead cells. The dye labeling is extremely stable, allowing the cells to be fixed and permeabilized without loss of fluorescence or dye transfer between cells. The Live/Dead Fixable Staining protocol has been optimized to maximize live/dead discrimination with minimal live cell staining. In order to prevent interference with immunostaining, PromoKine offers a selection of eight different Live/Dead Fixable Stains for maximal flexibility in multi-color analysis.
Cell Death Assay Kit (MPTP)
Mitochondria play an essential role in cellular energy production. Damage of mitochondria activates signaling pathways that induce apoptosis. The mitochondrial permeability transition pore (MPTP) is a nonspecific channel formed by components of the inner and outer mitochondrial membranes, and is thought to be involved in the release of mitochondrial components during cell death. In healthy cells, MPTPs switch between open and closed states but during cell death activation of MPTPs dramatically alters the permeability of the mitochondria, resulting in cytochrome c release and loss of mitochondrial membrane potential.
PromoKine´s Cell Death Assay Kit (MPTP) provides a direct method of detecting cell death by measuring MPTP opening rather than relying on mitochondrial membrane potential alone.
Related Product: Mitochondrial Apoptosis Staining Kit